So why did Ron Maclean bring up Halifax?

Most people, rightly so, are questioning why Ron Maclean brought up Halifax as a possible NHL expansion zone. The area has neither an arena even close to NHL standards, nor a large enough market presence. Now don't get me wrong, I like Halifax, and I've always wondered why it isn't a much larger city than it is. But no sane person would recommend Halifax for the NHL.

Perhaps Maclean was trying to bait Bettman. See if he even knew where Halifax was. Maybe trick him into confusing Halifax with Hamilton. I seriously doubt he thinks a Halifax team would be successful. Maybe he was bringing up Halifax sarcastically, in deferrence to certain US cities that have teams that don't necessarily have the fans even a Halifax team might bring out. Maybe he brought up Halifax just to mess with the east coast Sydney Crosby fan machine. Who knows. Only Maclean, and he has yet to explain himself.

My own personal thoughts on the psychology behind the action, is that by bringing up such a nonsensical idea as Halifax as an NHL team (Hell, they can't even woo a CFL team) it makes the idea of a Winnipeg team, by comparison, inarguable. Now I think the footprint a Winnipeg team would have would cover a wide area of central north america including Manitoba, the Dakotas, Saskatchewan, and Western Ontario. With pay per view (and the MTS Centre is wired for such a feat) they would rake in quite a payload from fans who like to make use of their new HDTV's. So, Winnipeg, and Bettman admits it, stands a decent chance. Halifax however is surrounded by quite a few, by comparison, nearby teams such as Montreal, Boston, the entire east coast of NHL teams is right there. Theres no logical reason for the NHL to put a team there. That Bettman didn't say anything one way or another showed that he had no idea what Maclean was smoking.

So, whats the deal with the map? That NHL logo is the size of the distance between NHL teams currently unserved in that part of North America, the part of North America upon which Winnipeg is situated and the largest city between any other NHL city in that region. Pretty gaping hole. (Map courtesy of Google maps and NHL Draftnet)

In any case Ron Maclean gave me something to blog about. Thanks Ron.

Top 10 Reasons Gary Bettman should bring back the Jets

Recently theres been a bit of discussion about NHL expansion, presumably by two teams, because most people who follow the NHL are obsessive compulsives and require symmetry. So, Winnipeg has once again been brought up by every Canadian media personality who wants to sell Newspapers, radio air time, TV ad slots, or just wants to point out how American teams suck. Well, great. But that's not going to convince Gary Bettman. Gary Bettman is a numbers man. So here I present the Top Ten reasons Gary Bettman should be in favour of an NHL team returning to Winnipeg. I'll count down from 10 so that the leafs fans reading this can follow along without losing their spot.

10. They'll finally take down that sculpture of you in the Leo Mol Sculpture garden in Winnipeg with the plaque that reads "The Devil".

9. People may still chant "Bettman Sucks" but they'll hold off on the lewd gestures.

8. You can write it off as a charitable donation.

7. Because even American hockey fans put it at the top of their wish lists. Seriously.

(not funny enough? O.K. fine)

Real #7 ... Randy Bachman will let you use "Taking care of business" as your theme music when you move into the motivational speaking career you've had planned all these years.

6. So that the world can stop focussing on the team relocations and start focussing on the crappy new uniforms.

5. When global warming destroys all the teams in the south, you'll still have enough teams to form a league. (Bonus, Winnipeg will then count as a "southern team")

4. If you bring them back and they still fail, you can say "I told you so!" any time anyone questions you.

3. So that when the NHL expands to 450 teams in 2063 and brings back the old division names, the Bettman division won't include Trinidad, Antarctica, Easter Island, and Belize.

2. Save Money. No longer need to hire as many bodyguard's when in Canada (or at the very least they'll lower their rates)

And the number one reason Gary Bettman should bring back the Winnipeg Jets to the NHL:

1. So that everyone would just shut up about it!

And for the record, when the Leafs play the Coyote's in the coming pre-season in Winnipeg, I will not be cheering for the Coyote's (unless they wear Jets uniforms) But I WILL be booing Toronto. I hate Toronto, I hate Old people, and I hate teachers. and the leafs are owned by the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund. Die you old hippies. Don't support the leafs! Supporting the leafs is supporting old hippies.

I never thought I'd rant against Don Cherry, but for once he's actually gone too far. In this case, he's insulted the people who if they didn't exist, he wouldn't have his salary. The fans.

Now, I didn't watch Coaches Corner, as, unfortunately, I was busy christmas shopping and christmas shopping is more important than watching yet another crappy crappy pointless leafs game (I'd rather watch Anaheim play Pittsburgh than watch the Leafs play anybody) And, as a side complaint, Don Cherry's finally available in something other than RealVideo. It's about time, CBC. freakin Realvideo. honestly. Anything was better than that crap. Still its amusing that they can't get the rights to show NHL clips online. Wow. You can't even see online the clips that Don is discussing. Hey, NHL, it's a freakin CLIP. ITS FREE ADVERTISING FOR THE NHL. Man the NHL is really run by idiots. The CBC too, but we all know that. It's an interesting case study, an organization run by hippies, and an organization run by lawyers, and they amount to the same thing.

But that's irrelevant. We're talking about Rory Fitzpatrick. Now, I know Don didn't call him a Joke, but he's saying people are looking at this as a joke, and he's saying the NHL is NOT a joke. This is where I disagree. The *NHL* IS a joke. What with teams in cities that shouldn't have them, what with the league not wanting teams to move into Canada wheras doing less than nothing to prevent the opposite. What with everything Bettman has done over the years and is still planning to do in the next few. That people don't respect the institution enough anymore to vote overpayed millionaires to an all star game in Dallas. Why even have a vote then? Why not just pick whoever has the best stats and just automatically send them? The vote exists because the NHL wanted people to feel involved. Which is a surprisingly valid thought coming from those in charge of the NHL. I voted for Rory a few days ago. I ended up voting for a bunch of other players I wouldn't have even bothered voting for if I didn't feel like voting for Rory. Because of Rory, Teemu Selanne got another vote. Because of Rory, people are actually paying attention to a hockey game being played in the southern united states.

Rory IS an all star. He's an all star enough to play in todays NHL. If you say otherwise, it implies the quality of the game has gone downhill. He's no Wayne Gretzky, he's never going to try to sell me McDonald's Big Mac's, or a new car, or season tickets to a hockey team playing in a desert.. But to us fans he's an all star because he makes a living playing hockey. He's an all star because we say he is. He's a step away from being one of us, working our hum drum day to day jobs living our lives. The fans jumped on this bandwagon for a reason. Perhaps they're implying the league has become a joke, perhaps they're just having fun and poking fun at the apparent seriousness of the All Star game (Which should really just be a party celebrating the sport people enjoy watching and playing)...

In fact, Personally, I've never cared about All-Star games. I don't even think fans particularly care much about the All-star game either. If we want to watch the best players in the world play each other, thats what the Olympics are for.

Plus, for the record, we're not laughing at Rory. We like Rory. He knows how to have fun. We're laughing at all of you who are taking this so seriously. It's just a game, you know.

As for Cherry's line "They never saw him play, how could they say he's an all-star?", well, don't get me started on overrated Leafs players getting more recognition and fame than they deserve on account of the CBC.

Pittsburgh Penguins for sale, unless you're Canadian and want to move them north

I just came across news that Blackberry Billionaire Jim Balsillie has withdrawn his offer to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Apparently, the NHL wants the Penguins to stay where they are. They certainly don't want them moving to Canada. Of course, those Lawyers like Gary Bettman NHL Commisioner who have ruined the game had no problem with Canadian teams moving south to places like Phoenix, Arizona. They didn't even try to stop Hartford or Winnipeg or Quebec City's teams from moving.

Of course, this is probably fine for Gary and pals, if a team with talent like Pittsburgh moves, they want it to be to a nice US city, like Kansas City (where a current owner has an arena apparently) or of course, Houston.

Disgusting.

And the thing is, Balsillie has even stated that if a new arena is built he'd keep the team in Pittsburgh. Thats more than any American did for Canadian teams like Winnipeg, or Quebec City.

The day Gary Bettman was made Commisioner of the NHL is the day hockey stopped being entertaining. Just like the NBA where he came from is not entertaining.

Gary Bettman runs the NHL the same way George W Bush runs Iraq. And he's been getting the same results for years.

Looks like it's more of the same ol' same old stuff from this gang of fools.

Whats amusing is the asking price for the Penguins only got that high because Canadians were interested. As nice as it'd be to have an NHL team back in Winnipeg, these jokers don't deserve any success such a move might bring them.